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Luxembourg – Rijeka Where are areas of freedom lacking in Luxembourg? Where and how can they be created?

Public space, the core of civic life based on the principle of liberty, is increasingly being privatized – to make way for townhouse gardens, outdoor cafés or shopping galleries. The Luxembourg Institut, together with a whole bunch of partners in the arts, architecture, research and the independent scene, finds that young people are disappearing from the public sphere in Luxembourg. How can we create meeting places and enliven outdoor spaces? In other words, how might a humane and hospitable form of urban planning look in the 21st century?

Luxembourg-Rijeka
The Luxembourg-Rijeka tandem have launched a two-part project on the subject of freedom called "Luxflux" ("flux" because "Rijeka" means "river" in Croatian).

In the first part, Luxembourg will address the nature of public space. Public space in European cities has evolved into a realm accessible to all, but its value depends on whether people are actually motivated to use it and fill it with life. So the partners are looking into the quality of public space and asking: How do we design public space so people will feel like using it and spending time there? Where are realms of freedom lacking? These questions will be explored in two workshops in Luxembourg organized by the project partners: the Institut Pierre Werner, the University of Luxemburg, und the Luxembourg Center for Architecture.

The second part of the project is about how our society can safeguard individual liberties. Socio-economic status – social background, educational level, occupation – often predetermines the liberties we enjoy and renders some liberties meaningless to those who are unable to exercise them. A workshop in Rijeka, organized by the Goethe-Institut and its project partner, the Drugo More cultural institute, will explore these issues. The results of the workshop will be brought together in a project presentation, merging the Croatian and Luxembourgian viewpoints into a joint perspective that turns an initially analytical approach into an artistic and pragmatic one.

In The Place, It Has a Name, writer Ian De Toffoli, actress Elsa Rauch and artist Lisa Khol have teamed up to define Freiraum and what it means to each of us. The trio will present their piece, composed of elements of theatre and performance art, in Rijeka in November 2018 and in Luxembourg in March 2019.